Raiders Examine Future In Oakland With O.co Coliseum Contract Expiring After '13 Season

The Raiders' contract with O.co Coliseum expires after the ‘13 season and Oakland City Council Commissioner Ignacio De La Fuente said that the team has been “meeting with the Coliseum Joint Powers Authority, which governs the coliseum complex, to discuss the team's future in Oakland,” according to Woodall & Fernandez of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. Raiders Chief Exec Amy Trask repeatedly has said the Raiders “were keeping an open mind about sharing a facility in Santa Clara or in Oakland.” When asked about the “new round of speculation,” Trask said, "I am working with our team, our organization and the Raider family to navigate a very difficult time." De La Fuente yesterday said, "Everything is on the table." That could “entail a year-to-year contract extension, or a long-term agreement -- with or without a new stadium in Oakland.” But several commissioners yesterday said that “no decisions have been made.” Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews does not see late Owner Al Davis' death “changing anything regarding any immediate or sure-thing changes to where the Raiders will choose to locate.” Matthews said, "We've had no discussions with the Raiders. And we're focusing on creating a landmark building for our primary tenant, the 49ers." However, Santa Clara City Council member Lisa Gillmor said, "I would like to think that this improves the odds of the Raiders making a change to Santa Clara" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 10/12). In San Jose, Mark Purdy wrote Davis’ son, Mark, has “given no deep thought to where the Raiders might play in 2014 or beyond,” but there are “only three logical possibilities.” The Raiders “could stay in Oakland,” or they could “become co-tenants with the 49ers in their proposed Santa Clara project.” The team also could move to L.A., where “two competing projects are fighting to bring back NFL football.” Purdy also looks at where the Raiders could be playing in '20, saying the odds of being in Oakland at the time are “pretty long, " while the chances the team is playing in Santa Clara are “better than you might imagine" and the odds of being in L.A. in ’20 are “probably somewhere between the Oakland odds and Santa Clara odds” (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 10/12). 

MOVING ISSUES: YAHOO SPORTS’ Jason Cole wrote for fans who “think the Raiders are on the first Southwest flight from the Oakland Airport to LAX, just hold on for a second.” For that to happen, Raiders Owner the Davis family “would likely have to sell the team outright.” Sources said that both of the current L.A. stadium proposals “include those entities buying a share of the team that comes there.” Sources said that AEG Chair Phil Anschutz has asked franchises looking at a potential move to the proposed Farmers Field "for anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of a team at a discounted rate.” Majestic Realty Chair & CEO Ed Roski has “asked for less (one AEG source has put it at a nominal 5 to 10 percent).” However, a source said that Roski’s group “was not particularly focused on the Raiders at this point because of the questions about how much the Davis family really owned.” Cole wrote unless “demands are significantly lowered, the Raiders can’t really go to the AEG site unless the Davis family simply wants to sell, and going to the Roski site would also weaken the family’s share significantly.” For now, any sale of the team “seems improbable.” The NFL’s “preference (not a strong one) is that the Raiders stay in Oakland and eventually share a stadium” with the 49ers. Cole: “Ultimately, that may be the easiest way for the Davis family to stay as the owners” (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 10/11).